This puzzle:

This puzzle marks my first successful foray into the competitive world of NYT crossword publication. I am indebted to two other cruciverbalists who supported my puzzle solving and constructing over the years. The first is Molly Jackson, a grandmotherly friend who encouraged my intellectual curiosity as a child and reviewed my weekly attempts at solving the Sunday puzzle. The second is a friend and former colleague, Kristian House, who showed me the ropes of crossword construction, gave me a copy of Patrick Berry's Crossword Puzzle Challenges for Dummies, and patiently critiqued my early clunkers.

Having endured about twenty prior rejection emails, the puzzle represents a "Eureka!" moment for me as a novice constructor. FLYLIKEANEAGLE was the inspiration for the theme (thanks to the Psalms and the Steve Miller Band). SINGLIKEACANARY, a wonderful expression I first heard watching a Bugs Bunny cartoon parody of old gangster films, became the perfect central entry with 15 letters. My dilemma was to find a third entry exactly 14 letters long to offset the first symmetrically on the grid – not easy. There are only so many birds and far fewer "(act) like a(bird)" phrases out there, so unearthing WATCHLIKEAHAWK was a godsend.

Finally, editor Will Shortz taught this bird-brained NEOPHYTE about including more interesting fill words, especially in the longer entries of the grid. This was true in the northwest corner where I replaced some utterly forgettable word with the always interesting SCALAWAG.

In the end, I am both honored and proud as a peacock to have my work appear in the Times.